Chapter 323: This Kind of Dangerous Move—Succeed or Sink to the Bottom!
The old man’s sudden words gave Rahman a fright.
He hadn’t said a single word back just a moment ago—why was he talking so much now?
Out of curiosity, Rahman continued to observe the chicken in front of him.
Its comb stood tall and upright, a bright red, like a mighty general wearing a red helmet.
The rooster’s neck was long and flexible, covered in beautiful feathers, like a magnificent battle robe!
Its body was strong and powerful, its wings and legs sturdy and forceful, displaying its strength and ferocity.
Especially its tail—among that patch of black tail feathers, there was one red feather that stood out brilliantly.
It really did look much more majestic than an ordinary rooster, though it surely had more meat on it too.
This chicken was right in the middle of the road, as if blocking his path.
Combined with what the old man had just said, Rahman recalled something.
Back on Blue Star, animals had far stronger perception than humans—they could sense many dangers in advance.
In other words, this chicken was telling him there was danger ahead?
Eating it would indeed restore his stamina, but how to deal with the danger—that was what Rahman needed to figure out.
With that thought, he said to the old man, “Excuse me, sir, what should I do?”
After all, since you know that ‘when an animal blocks the road, there must be a reason,’ and you’re a local resident here, you must know something, right?
Sure enough, the old man told Rahman to observe the chicken carefully.
The chicken kept pecking at the ground from time to time, proving it was very hungry.
All he needed to do was satisfy its needs, and it would leave—and it would be able to help Rahman.
So what Rahman needed to do was catch bugs in the nearby area to feed the rooster.
After hearing the old man’s words, Rahman nodded.
Then he set the old man down by the roadside and went off to catch bugs, trying his best not to scare the rooster away.
Following the chirping of some insects, Rahman caught quite a few and tossed them onto the road for the rooster to eat.
But this rooster had quite an appetite—Rahman spent a full fifteen minutes catching bugs before the rooster was finally full.
Once the rooster had eaten its fill, it left the area contentedly.
After the rooster was gone, Rahman continued carrying the old man along the road.
When he asked the old man some questions, the old man seemed to ‘crash’ again, giving no answers.
Only faint, weak breathing sounds came from him, letting the Chosen One know he wasn’t dead yet.
But after walking another ten minutes or so, an even stranger scene appeared.
There was actually a carp flopping around in the middle of the road.
This made Rahman feel like his brain wasn’t enough to handle it.
In a place like this, a wild rooster made sense, but why would there be a carp in the middle of the road?
Even if a fish had accidentally jumped out, there should at least be a river nearby.
But there was no river here—not even a puddle.
This bizarre scene made Rahman not even consider eating the fish. Instead, he carefully observed his surroundings, afraid some danger might appear.
After confirming everything was fine, he woke the old man and asked what he should do.
The old man tremblingly opened his eyes and said, “Cup it in your hands, don’t drop it. Find a place with living water and put it in. Remember—living water.”
Rahman had no other options now, so he could only follow the old man’s instructions.
Living water meant flowing water.
Dead water was a pool that couldn’t circulate, a closed-off lake, or something similar.
Rahman cupped the fish in his hands and quickly wove through the forest.
Following the direction the old man pointed, he soon heard the sound of flowing water.
Before long, he arrived near a small stream and carefully released the carp.
Since it was a release, he naturally had to be careful.
Otherwise, after all that effort to get here, if he threw it in and it smashed against a rock and died, wouldn’t it all be for nothing?
After watching the carp swim away lively, Rahman returned the way he came, picked up the old man, and continued on.
He was actually quite puzzled about why the old man wanted him to do this, and he’d tried to ask, but the old man had ‘gone offline’ again and didn’t answer.
But soon, Rahman understood why the old man had him do it.
When the time reached 4:30 in the afternoon, Rahman passed through an area of dirt mounds.
It looked like a graveyard, and the gravestones had no words on them.
In a place like this, Rahman felt creeped out, so he sped up.
But just as he accelerated, the ground began to shake, making him feel like he was about to fall.
Rumble!
A giant centipede burst out of the ground, causing the surrounding trees to collapse and the earth to crack.
This giant centipede was over ten meters tall, and the moment it appeared, it let out a terrifying cry.
The centipede’s head was a massive dark-red fleshy lump, covered in densely packed compound eyes that flickered with a cold light, making anyone who saw it panic.
The edges of the fleshy lump had yellow and black patterns, looking like the centipede’s smile—eerie and horrifying.
Based on Rahman’s experience in the Strange Tales World, this creature was probably showing that kind of happy smile after seeing a delicious meal.
The most terrifying part was the centipede’s massive mandibles, like two curved sickles. Every time they opened and closed, it made one’s heart tremble with fear.
The centipede’s body was covered in tiny legs, each one like a delicate saw, capable of easily slicing through anything around it.
Rahman didn’t know if this giant centipede’s appearance counted as an animal blocking the road, but he knew he couldn’t satisfy the centipede’s demands.
Because this giant centipede was staring fixedly at him—meaning it wanted to eat him.
From breaking through the ground to fully appearing, the giant centipede exuded a powerful aura.
Never mind Rahman and the low-tier Transcendent Miller—even some of the stronger Chosen Ones showed expressions of fear.
This thing was far more powerful than those Red-Clothed Strange entities—comparable to a Purple-Clothed Strange.
It was no longer a level that Chosen Ones could handle normally.
Rahman didn’t understand what he’d done wrong to encounter this kind of trouble.
There hadn’t even been any rule提示 warning of danger here.
Could it be that he shouldn’t have saved the old man?
Was the old man attracting it here?
But the next scene made him find it even more unbelievable.
Just as the giant centipede was about to lunge at Rahman, a rooster’s crow that shook the heavens appeared.
A giant rooster over ten meters tall appeared, charging over at full speed.
All the trees blocking its path were knocked down by the powerful impact.
Only massive chicken claw marks were left on the road.
With a great enemy before it, the giant centipede had no mind to attack Rahman—it only wanted to run.
Don’t be fooled by the similar body sizes—this rooster was extremely majestic.
If the rooster’s beak pecked it even once, the giant centipede would definitely explode on the spot.
That kind of bloodline suppression made the giant centipede not dare to fight at all.
It was only powerful in the eyes of the Chosen Ones, but in the eyes of this giant rooster, it was just food.
The great battle was about to begin—the giant rooster would never let such a delicious thing go.
At this point, Rahman really should have run. Some of the smarter Chosen Ones had already run far away.
Rahman was somewhat at a loss, or perhaps he hadn’t had time to run yet, when the giant centipede was already defeated.
After the giant rooster and giant centipede exchanged just two moves, the giant centipede’s body was pecked open.
With the giant rooster’s sudden burst of force, the giant centipede’s body was torn into pieces.
This kind of insect, extremely high in protein, naturally burst with juices.
Rahman got splattered all over his face, looking utterly miserable.
He was still relatively lucky—his mouth was closed when the explosion happened. Those Chosen Ones with their mouths open ended up eating a mouthful.
That high protein made the audience incredibly envious.
If those Chosen Ones who ate the protein knew the audience was making sarcastic comments, they’d definitely want to drag them in and let them eat their fill.
The Chosen Ones who didn’t dodge in time but had quick reflexes immediately lowered their heads, letting their bamboo hats block the splatter.
They didn’t get any in their mouths, but their bodies were covered in it.
Rahman judged that this rooster might be the same one he’d just fed?
Because if the old man hadn’t lied to him, that should be the explanation.
This was a relationship of kindness and repayment.
And indeed, this rooster had one red feather among its black tail feathers.
If he had given in to his appetite back then and eaten the chicken, he would now be the giant centipede’s food.
In the Strange Tales World, being greedy wasn’t a good thing.
Now, a giant centipede lay dead in front of him, its massive size more than enough for the giant rooster to eat.
When this rooster saw the Chosen One, it even proactively picked up a piece of centipede meat and tossed it in front of the Chosen One, then nodded at him, as if saying, “Here, take this and eat it.”
Rahman, whose face was covered in splatter, had no mood to eat at all and politely declined the giant rooster’s “gift.”
But truth be told, some Chosen Ones really dared to eat it.
Because these Chosen Ones had no taboo against eating insects—they’d been eating them all along the way—so they gave it a try.
It had to be said, the taste was truly awful, but there was a lot of meat and it filled the stomach.
An ordinary person really couldn’t stomach it.
After this incident, the Chosen Ones walked another half hour before stopping again.
A wide black water river appeared before them, roughly two hundred meters across by estimate.
The main thing was, there seemed to be no suspension bridge here at all.
When the Chosen Ones tried to find a way across, they discovered something strange.
It seemed that no matter what fell into the river, it would quickly sink.
Some Chosen Ones who wanted to cross using bamboo rafts wasted dozens of minutes.
The water seemed to have a massive attractive force, pulling everything that fell into it down.
This stumped quite a few Chosen Ones. Rahman wanted to ask the old man how to get across, but the old man seemed ‘dead’—aside from breathing, he couldn’t even twitch his eyelids.
At this stage, compared to the other Chosen Ones’ panic, the American Chosen One Miller was surprisingly calm. He didn’t even do anything—just waited here.
Sure enough, after some time, the carp he had saved on the road also transformed into a massive creature and swam up to him.
It looked like it wanted him to ride on it and carry him across the river.
After all, the old man had said, ‘When an animal blocks the road, there must be a reason.’
He had saved it, and now it was repaying him—that was only fair.
Miller even understood why the old man had told him to put that fish in living water.
If it had been placed in dead water, it wouldn’t have been able to swim over—that was clearly a hint.
He knew this, so he had never panicked.
This level had another fatal detail: you had to remember the characteristics of the carp you saved.
For example, its color, the shape of its fins, and so on.
Don’t ride the wrong one—if you did, this level meant certain death.
The Strange Tales World wouldn’t be smooth sailing—there would definitely be these kinds of inexplicable traps.
And indeed, five Chosen Ones died at this level.
Because they were too excited, they didn’t notice whether it was the right one.
Subconsciously, they assumed the carp that swam up to them was the one they had just saved.
Actually, the previous level with the rooster had already given a hint—the rooster that saved the Chosen One had the exact same tail feather color as the rooster the Chosen One had saved.
If you didn’t notice this, this level was extremely dangerous.
But this wasn’t unsolvable—some Chosen Ones spent about forty to fifty minutes figuring it out.
They hadn’t remembered what the carp they saved looked like, but they did remember the rule: ‘When an animal blocks the road, there must be a reason.’
A waterway is also a road.
There were fish in this black water river, and these fish might be hungry, trying to trick them into the water to eat them.
Right! He still had the centipede’s smell on him—it made sense that the carp would want to eat him.
But if he fed one of them, would it carry him across?
With that thought, these Chosen Ones caught bugs nearby. Some even ran to where the rooster had fought the centipede and carried back some centipede meat.
After all, the rooster couldn’t finish such a giant centipede.
This was the lifeline the Strange Tales World gave the Chosen Ones. Though it took time, it was better than dying in the black water river.
A well-fed carp would naturally carry them to the other side.
This also fulfilled ‘the animal’s request’ in a roundabout way.
Of course, there were still eccentric Chosen Ones who took a different path and, without any rule hints, actually made it across.
This time, a Transcendent from Hans Country made a giant slingshot from nearby materials and launched himself across.
There were even more daring ones who directly pole-vaulted—succeed or sink to the bottom.
The rules only suggested a relatively safe method, but if a Chosen One insisted on playing with fire or showing off, no one would stop them.
As long as you could get across, there was never just one way.
But to dare to play like this, you had to be a Transcendent. An ordinary Chosen One launched by a slingshot would be smashed to death on the spot.
The thrills and excitement of the black water river also made the audience marvel at the Chosen Ones’ wisdom.
If it were them, even if they found the correct carp, they really wouldn’t dare ride it—let alone try those other bizarre methods.
After the carp swam to the other shore, Rahman began to realize that what the old man had said might be the rule of this road.
As long as he followed this rule, Rahman could pass this level.
On the road ahead, whenever Rahman encountered an animal—like a deer with a wounded leg, a sheep pinned by a rock, a bear bleeding profusely, and so on—he would step in to save them.
Sure enough, whenever he encountered various dangers, these animals he had saved would come to help him resolve the danger.
Gradually, the audience also understood that the old man’s words were the rule.
With that thought, the audience of Dragon Country immediately turned on their screens.
They wanted to see how that Daoist Zhang, who didn’t know the ‘rule,’ was getting through these trials.
After all, everyone knew that Daoist Zhang really hadn’t carried the old man along the road.
Maybe Daoist Zhang, fighting on his home turf, could guess ‘when an animal blocks the road, there must be a reason’ on his own?
But when they turned it on, they were disappointed. Zhang Yangqing had no idea about this rule—or rather, he didn’t care about it at all.
Along the way, Zhang Yangqing ate chicken, ate fish, ate deer antler, ate mutton, ate bear paw…
The audience was absolutely stunned.
Wow—the guy next door saved animals all along the way, and you just ate everything the whole way?
Zhang Yangqing even felt confused—why did this forest look so dangerous? Where was the danger? Why was it all just food?
Please, I’m begging you, stop coming—I can’t eat anymore!
